Lee Jung-mi: "The Innovation Re-creation Train Cannot Stop Just Because a Few Passengers Get Off"

As the Justice Party is pushing for an 'innovative re-founding,' Lee Jeong-mi, the party leader, expressed regret over the departure of 60 current and former party officials who left the party to establish a new party, saying, "It is very unfortunate from the leader's standpoint."

On the 12th, on BBS's 'Jeon Young-shin's Morning Journal,' Leader Lee said, "I wish we could have overcome the party's difficulties together and navigated through them well, as promised to the party members."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

She stated, "While we respect and will observe various experiments in party founding outside the party," she added, "the engine of the Justice Party's innovative re-founding will not stop just because those individuals left the party," indicating her intention to continue the innovative re-founding efforts.

The departing members claimed that "the Justice Party is already in a situation beyond repair." In response, Leader Lee said, "Whether it is the People Power Party or the Democratic Party, people who leave a party do not usually say they are leaving despite the party having potential," and added, "the train of innovative re-founding cannot stop just because a few passengers get off. Those individuals have taken their own path, and the Justice Party should continue on its own path well."

Some media outlets reported that Leader Lee blocked the departing party members' press conference. Regarding this, she said, "I am not in a position to block a press conference," and explained, "it is inappropriate for the party spokesperson to hold a press conference at the official briefing room announcing their departure from the party, so I repeatedly asked them to avoid such a method. However, since they refused until the end, it was not possible for them to hold a press conference as spokespersons announcing their departure, so I dismissed them from their position."

When asked by the host whether the new party promotion group led by lawmakers Jang Hye-young and Ryu Ho-jeong would also leave the party, Leader Lee said, "If I say this, our Ryu Ho-jeong and Jang Hye-young lawmakers might feel very disappointed," emphasizing, "they are lawmakers representing the party with a strong sense of party responsibility, and they participated in the National Committee that decided the direction of the recent innovative re-founding and agreed to that decision as one team."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.